Falconry Raptors

A raptor is a bird of prey; a predator that seizes its prey with its feet. That’s the critical difference separating the raptors from other carnivorous birds, such as herons or pelicans, which capture prey with their beaks.

Not all raptors are desirable for falconry purposes, and not all are legal at the federal or state level. The birds appearing on this list are the ones that you are most likely to see.

Hybrids are simply a cross between two species produced by either natural mating or artificial insemination (AI). Hybrids don’t have to be 50/50 either; a peregrine/gyr hybrid crossed with a peregrine yields 75% peregrine, 25% gyr offspring. “Tribrids” exist but are nearly unheard of, such as this peregrine/lanner/gyr. Some consider crosses between subspecies (anatum and Peales’ peregrines, for example) to be hybrids as well.

A hybrid’s name is a combination of the father first, then mother. The female will usually be the smaller species, since a small eyass in a too-large egg can’t get enough leverage to break the shell and hatch. This is why you see “perlins” (peregrine/merlin) and not “merligrines” (merlin/peregrine).

Hybrids are created to provide additional traits such as cold/heat resistance, increased size or speed, better temperament, or general hardiness. Most commonly, the falcons are used for hybridizing, like the gyr-peregrine, gyr-saker, or “pocket rocket” (gyr/merlin) but other viable crossings have included harris’ hawk x redtailed hawk, redtailed hawk x ferruginous hawk (“ferrutail”), harris’ hawk x coopers hawk, and harris hawk x golden eagle. Hybrids do, if rarely, occur naturally in the wild.

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sir the WFA is the best association and working toomach for falconry and here in pakistan this is illigal job and we the falconers are in big trouble i am working as pakistan falconers association at facebook and want to organized all falconers at a pletform according to the unisco diclaration the pakistan is one of 15 countreis where the falconery is the national heritage and not illegle job.now we want to ragestre our Association and want to strugle for pakistani falconers pls guide us and help us sory for my bed english